Presenting the findings of a recent literature review on climate change adaptation for wildlife and natural resources. To put the issue into context, she will also highlight results of NWF's analyses of sea-level rise impacts to coastal habitats and will offer a range of potential adaptation measures for coastal systems.

This presentation sets the stage for the USFS/NWF webinar series on climate change vulnerability assessment and adaptation planning for resource managers that is set to begin in January. Calling on almost a decade of national and international experience with climate change, Jennie will use real-world examples to illustrate how traditional approaches to conservation and management may be vulnerable to climate change as well as a variety of approaches to vulnerability assessment and adaptation. These include top-down and bottom-up approaches, and efforts geared towards adapting projects, processes, and programs to climate change.

Vulnerability assessment is a tool for understanding how different species and habitats are likely to respond to changes in climate, and provides essential information for developing climate change adaptation strategies. This presentation will explore the conceptual basis for assessing vulnerability--including its subcomponents of sensitivity and exposure--and will review several of the assessment approaches that currently are in use or under development.

Climate change poses many challenges to the conservation of fish, wildlife and their habitats. As temperatures warm and precipitation patterns change, species and ecosystems will need to either adapt in place, move across the landscape to track optimal conditions, or face an increased risk of going locally or even globally extinct. While there is a growing acknowledgement of the threat of climate change to fish and wildlife conservation, managers continue to struggle with how to translate the science on climate change into site- and target-specific strategies for action. The uncertainties and complexities involved in predicting future conditions can often be paralyzing to those trying to make decisions about fish and wildlife conservation. I will discuss these challenges, and present an iterative framework for adaptation planning and action that helps users overcome the paralysis of uncertainty and start addressing the question of what we should be doing differently to manage and conserve wildlife as climate changes. The framework draws on approaches to making decisions under uncertainty, such as scenario-based planning and adaptive management. I will present several pilot applications of the framework to address fish and wildlife conservation issues in western U.S.

Climate Change Communication

Climate Change: Wildlife and Wildlands (00:13:15)

A 12 minute video on climate change science and the impacts on wildlife and their habitat in the US. This video can be used in classrooms as an introduction to the topic, or in visitor centers and interpretive talks in informal educational settings.

Ms. Zavaleta will discuss several themes that provide conceptual guidance and food for thought as resource managers tackle the questions of whether and how to change their approaches to stewardship in the face of climate change.

Throughout its history, Earth’s climate has varied, reflecting the complex interactions and dependencies of the solar, oceanic, terrestrial, atmospheric, and living components that make up planet Earth’s systems. For at least the last million years, our world has experienced cycles of warming and cooling that take approximately 100,000 years to complete.

Ms. Zavaleta will discuss several themes that provide conceptual guidance and food for thought as resource managers tackle the questions of whether and how to change their approaches to stewardship in the face of climate change.

Tools you can use the Essential Principles of Climate Science Literacy(00:47:32)

Presented by Dr. Mark McCaffrey, the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. February 2010.

Wildlife and Climate Change

A New Era for Conservation - Safeguarding Wildlife from Climate Change(01:12:28)

Presenting the findings of a recent literature review on climate change adaptation for wildlife and natural resources. To put the issue into context, she will also highlight results of NWF's analyses of sea-level rise impacts to coastal habitats and will offer a range of potential adaptation measures for coastal systems.

Dr. Wiens has co-authored several important scientific papers about scales of modeling. scales of conservation, and niches, models, and climate change. His current research includes studies of climate change and birds in California. Topics to be covered in this webinar include climate change and its impacts modeling, another way of looking at climate change, assumptions and uncertainties, land-use change, and why we need a new conservation paradigm.

During this webinar we will explore the approaches most commonly implemented to model the large-scale response of amphibians and reptiles to climate change. We will discuss what conclusions can be drawn from vulnerability assessments, and what kinds of data are necessary to execute an assessment. Examples of a vulnerability assessment being conducted in the southeastern US will be used to demonstrate model outputs and applications.

Climate Change: Wildlife and Wildlands(00:13:15)

A 12 minute video on climate change science and the impacts on wildlife and their habitat in the US. This video can be used in classrooms as an introduction to the topic, or in visitor centers and interpretive talks in informal educational settings.

Ms. Zavaleta will discuss several themes that provide conceptual guidance and food for thought as resource managers tackle the questions of whether and how to change their approaches to stewardship in the face of climate change.

Presenting the findings of a recent literature review on climate change adaptation for wildlife and natural resources. To put the issue into context, she will also highlight results of NWF's analyses of sea-level rise impacts to coastal habitats and will offer a range of potential adaptation measures for coastal systems.

This presentation sets the stage for the USFS/NWF webinar series on climate change vulnerability assessment and adaptation planning for resource managers that is set to begin in January. Calling on almost a decade of national and international experience with climate change, Jennie will use real-world examples to illustrate how traditional approaches to conservation and management may be vulnerable to climate change as well as a variety of approaches to vulnerability assessment and adaptation. These include top-down and bottom-up approaches, and efforts geared towards adapting projects, processes, and programs to climate change.

During this webinar we will explore the approaches most commonly implemented to model the large-scale response of amphibians and reptiles to climate change. We will discuss what conclusions can be drawn from vulnerability assessments, and what kinds of data are necessary to execute an assessment. Examples of a vulnerability assessment being conducted in the southeastern US will be used to demonstrate model outputs and applications.

Climate change poses many challenges to the conservation of fish, wildlife and their habitats. As temperatures warm and precipitation patterns change, species and ecosystems will need to either adapt in place, move across the landscape to track optimal conditions, or face an increased risk of going locally or even globally extinct. While there is a growing acknowledgement of the threat of climate change to fish and wildlife conservation, managers continue to struggle with how to translate the science on climate change into site- and target-specific strategies for action. The uncertainties and complexities involved in predicting future conditions can often be paralyzing to those trying to make decisions about fish and wildlife conservation. I will discuss these challenges, and present an iterative framework for adaptation planning and action that helps users overcome the paralysis of uncertainty and start addressing the question of what we should be doing differently to manage and conserve wildlife as climate changes. The framework draws on approaches to making decisions under uncertainty, such as scenario-based planning and adaptive management. I will present several pilot applications of the framework to address fish and wildlife conservation issues in western U.S.

Ms. Zavaleta will discuss several themes that provide conceptual guidance and food for thought as resource managers tackle the questions of whether and how to change their approaches to stewardship in the face of climate change.

This webinar will focus on a newly released guide to vulnerability assessment --Scanning the Conservation Horizon--designed to assist fish and wildlife and other natural resource managers as they work to prepare for and cope with the impacts of climate change. The guide provides an overall framework for how vulnerability assessment supports climate change adaptation planning efforts, covers how assessments can be designed to meet specific user needs, and offers case studies on existing assessments of species and habitats. The guide also represents a broad interagency collaboration coordinated by National Wildlife Federation, it benefited from support and involvement from US Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, US Geological Survey, US Forest Service, NOAA, and Department of Defense. Additional case studies supplementing those in the guide will also be discussed.

With a grant from the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Manonment Center for Conservation Sciences, we identified the relative vulnerability of twenty habitat types identified in the Massachusetts State Wildlife Action Plan using an Expert Panel approach. We identify the Species in Greatest Conservation Need linked to these habitats which are most likely to be affected by climate change conditions. We provide confidence values for the relative vulnerability rankings and identify the various factors which make them vulnerable under climate change conditions for each habitat type. Results from this assessment are being used to inform wildlife habitat management and acquisition implementation processes.

Throughout its history, Earth’s climate has varied, reflecting the complex interactions and dependencies of the solar, oceanic, terrestrial, atmospheric, and living components that make up planet Earth’s systems. For at least the last million years, our world has experienced cycles of warming and cooling that take approximately 100,000 years to complete.

Presenting the findings of a recent literature review on climate change adaptation for wildlife and natural resources. To put the issue into context, she will also highlight results of NWF's analyses of sea-level rise impacts to coastal habitats and will offer a range of potential adaptation measures for coastal systems.

This presentation sets the stage for the USFS/NWF webinar series on climate change vulnerability assessment and adaptation planning for resource managers that is set to begin in January. Calling on almost a decade of national and international experience with climate change, Jennie will use real-world examples to illustrate how traditional approaches to conservation and management may be vulnerable to climate change as well as a variety of approaches to vulnerability assessment and adaptation. These include top-down and bottom-up approaches, and efforts geared towards adapting projects, processes, and programs to climate change.

With a grant from the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Manonment Center for Conservation Sciences, we identified the relative vulnerability of twenty habitat types identified in the Massachusetts State Wildlife Action Plan using an Expert Panel approach. We identify the Species in Greatest Conservation Need linked to these habitats which are most likely to be affected by climate change conditions. We provide confidence values for the relative vulnerability rankings and identify the various factors which make them vulnerable under climate change conditions for each habitat type. Results from this assessment are being used to inform wildlife habitat management and acquisition implementation processes.

Vulnerability assessment is a tool for understanding how different species and habitats are likely to respond to changes in climate, and provides essential information for developing climate change adaptation strategies. This presentation will explore the conceptual basis for assessing vulnerability--including its subcomponents of sensitivity and exposure--and will review several of the assessment approaches that currently are in use or under development.

Boundary Spanning: Out on the Range with National Park Adaptation Rangers(00:39:52)

Effective scientist-practitioner collaboration is vital for successful natural resource management and is only becoming more critical as the Anthropocene presents increasingly complex resource management challenges. Ongoing climate change adds great urgency and complexity to the scientist-practitioner interaction because of the inherent challenges of climate science, the emergence of novel conditions and management problems that climate change presents, and the need to shift management paradigms away from a historical-range-of-variability reference and instead towards managing for continuous change. In this presentation, we discuss ongoing climate change, adaptation frameworks, and multi-partner adaptation approaches.

Case Studies of Climate-Smart Conservation in Restoration of the Great Lakes(01:05:43)

State Wildlife Action Plans are the blueprint in each state for preventing wildlife from becoming endangered. They are mandated by Congress for revision in 2015. State wildlife agencies and their many partners (federal, state, NGO, etc.) are working now to update these plans with the latest information. We showcase several state wildlife agencies work over the past few years to integrate climate change into these Action Plans and share lessons learned. The lessons are valuable for other planning initiatives.

Dr. Wiens has co-authored several important scientific papers about scales of modeling. scales of conservation, and niches, models, and climate change. His current research includes studies of climate change and birds in California. Topics to be covered in this webinar include climate change and its impacts modeling, another way of looking at climate change, assumptions and uncertainties, land-use change, and why we need a new conservation paradigm.

During this webinar we will explore the approaches most commonly implemented to model the large-scale response of amphibians and reptiles to climate change. We will discuss what conclusions can be drawn from vulnerability assessments, and what kinds of data are necessary to execute an assessment. Examples of a vulnerability assessment being conducted in the southeastern US will be used to demonstrate model outputs and applications.

Climate Change and Extreme Weather: What the Conservation Professional Needs to Know(01:12:40)

From heat waves, wildfires, and droughts to floods, snowstorms, and derechos, record-setting extreme weather events are becoming more commonplace. In 2012 alone, more than 40,000 hot temperature records have been set across the United States. Climate change is fueling these new extremes. This webinar will summarize the latest scientific understanding of how climate change is affecting weather extremes today, projections for extremes under future climate scenarios, and the implications for ecosystems and biodiversity. It will also explore how considering more intense extremes, in addition to shifting baseline conditions, affects how we assess vulnerability of ecosystems to climate change and approach natural resource management. Finally, increasing extremes will be one of the most apparent manifestations of climate change in the lives of many people. For conservation professionals, it provides an important opportunity for engaging diverse audiences about how climate is changing, the impacts on people and wildlife, and options for addressing these growing risks. The webinar will conclude with a discussion of communicating about climate-driven weather extremes.

The interaction of climate change and human development will likely strongly influence habitat area, fragmentation, and connectivity for native wildlife species. Increasing human population nationally and regional not only fuel urban development, but also affect land use conversions generally, leading to rapid habitat loss and fragmentation due to conversion of natural landscapes to uses dominated by human activities. Simultaneously, climate change is expected to drive large-scale shifts in ecological conditions, and geographic shifts in vegetation types. The interaction of these two major ecological stressors will likely result in complex patterns of habitat loss and fragmentation for many native wildlife species. Predicting the synergistic effects of multiple ecosystem stressors at broad geographical scales on habitat area, fragmentation and connectivity is critical to informed management and perseveration of healthy, functioning and intact ecosystems. Our work is (1) estimating genetic diversity, population fragmentation and corridor network under current climate and land use/road network patterns across the multiple study areas across the western United States for a selection of wildlife species of conservation concern; (2) predicting changes to genetic diversity, fragmentation, and corridors for these species under future scenarios involving a combination of climate change, urban development and road network expansion; (3) identifying key geographical locations that are most important to maintaining population connectivity for each focal species; and (4) developing spatially explicit strategies for maintaining population connectivity for the focal species under future climate and development patterns.

Anthropogenic climate change may have profound effects on stream biotas, most of which are cold-blooded and live in networks that are already heavily fragmented by human development. Concern over potential impacts is driving strong inter-agency collaborations and development of extensive monitoring networks and accurate models for downscaling broad climate patterns to key habitat variables. We provide examples of two such models that provide detailed predictions of stream temperature and hydrology under various climate scenarios across large portions of the Rocky Mountains. New decision support tools have been developed that integrate outputs from these models to provide information at spatial and temporal scales relevant to management. Even as the resolution, accuracy, and amount of data available to inform management decisions increases, key uncertainties remain. For aquatic biotas, these include documenting biological responses to long-term climate trends and estimating minimum habitat configurations below which population persistence is unlikely. Once biological responses are better understood, risk management through strategically targeted conservation actions will be able to proceed more efficiently than is presently the case. Flexibility in management responses will be required to bolster populations where it makes sense to do so, but managers will also have to accept the inevitable losses of some species from portions of historic ranges and expansion of new species into local aquatic communities. Some species will benefit and others will be harmed, but broad distributional adjustments are likely to occur this century. Our ability to accurately translate broad climate trends to effects on key fish habitats has dramatically increased in recent years with the advent of massive stream temperature monitoring networks and application of new spatial analyses for streams.

Climate Change Tree and Bird Atlases(01:01:57)

Safeguarding Wildlife from Climate Change - NWF/NCTC Webinar Series. Presented by Anantha Prasad Research Ecologist, USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station and Stephen Matthews, Research Assistant Professor. March 14, 2012.

This webinar explores the broad scale environmental factors that influence where species occur on the landscape and how climate change can impact species habitats. It will provide you with an opportunity to explore the Tree and Bird Climate Change Atlas, http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/atlas/, which contains a wealth of information about 134 tree and 147 bird species of the eastern U.S. Climate change is already altering species patterns, and it is vital that we begin to consider how these changes may impact management and conservation decisions. The atlas provides a detailed look at how the habitats for tree and bird species may respond in a changing climate. This webinar will include 1) an introduction to our multi-stage modelling effort; 2) a thorough overview of the Climate Atlas web site and all of its useful components. At the conclusion of the workshop, participants will be able to better appreciate the potential ecological impacts of climate change on species habitats.

Climate Change Vulnerability of Fish & Wildlife in the US Corn Belt Region(01:01:23)

The impacts of climate change on native biodiversity in agricultural regions of the interior US have been given less attention than other ecosystems, yet are no less important to consider. Climate change impacts such as heavy rainfall, summer drought, and heat waves are predicted to be severe in the US Corn Belt region, potentially exacerbating the negative impacts of other anthropogenic stressors. Simultaneously, human demands on land and water resources in the form of food and energy production continue to grow. Against this backdrop of rapidly shifting conditions in what was already a challenging conservation environment, several Midwestern states are working to incorporate climate change considerations into their conservation priorities, including updates to State Wildlife Action Plans. Four independent teams used similar methods to evaluate climate change vulnerabilities of wildlife species in Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska. Species associated with freshwater ecosystems were found to be the most vulnerable to climate change across assessments. We suggest that, if managed sustainably, Midwestern river systems and wetlands could buffer climate change impacts and serve as important climate migration corridors while continuing to provision important ecosystem services to society.

Safeguarding Wildlife from Climate Change - NWF/NCTC Webinar Series. There is strong interest in on-the-ground climate adaptation conservation, but very little practical guidance is available and even fewer examples of case studies have been implemented and described. The Wildlife Conservation Society, with funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, directs the Climate Adaptation Fund to encourage and support on-the-ground projects promoting wildlife adaptation to climate change. This webinar will provide an overview of this grant program including announcing the 2012 grant awards, review the application process and goals of the program, and explore and discuss two examples of climate adaptation work currently underway. For more information: www.wcsnorthamerica.com/ClimateAdaptationFund

During this webinar we will explore the approaches most commonly implemented to model the large-scale response of amphibians and reptiles to climate change. We will discuss what conclusions can be drawn from vulnerability assessments, and what kinds of data are necessary to execute an assessment. Examples of a vulnerability assessment being conducted in the southeastern US will be used to demonstrate model outputs and applications.

Connie Roser-Renouf will discuss audience segmentation research on Americans’ beliefs, attitudes and behaviors related to climate change. She will describe the relationship between parents’ and children’s attitudes toward climate change, and explore communication strategies for reaching six distinct audience groups, Global Warming’s Six Americas.

Conservation in a Rapidly Changing Climate(01:33:00)

Safeguarding Wildlife from Climate Change - NWF/NCTC Webinar Series. Presented by Dr. Camille, Professor in integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin and National Aquarium Chair in the Public Understanding of Oceans and Human Health, Plymouth University, UK. April 18, 2012.

Will provide both an overview of the impacts of climate change and how we can use observed changes (e.g. range shifts) to inform us about conservation implications and point to possible management interventions. New climate models make it easier to explore different possible future scenarios for how the ranges of wild species might shift, contract or expand, but full utilization of these models requires intensive species' location data, with obvious implications for monitoring needs. There is increasing evidence that the impacts of climate change vary widely depending on other anthropogenic stressors. Interactions between climate change and other factors cause difficulties in teasing out their individual effects, but may also provide an opportunity for proactive adaptation to future changed climates. My talk will end with a discussion of management solutions, from the mundane to the extreme.

Conserving Wildlife in Mountain Ecosystems: Importance of a Broad-scale Perspective(01:10:06)

This presentation will use mountain wildlife to illustrate several phenomena related to contemporary climate change: a) investigation of body-condition and reproductive-fitness responses to possible phenological mismatches across elevational gradients, involving timing of sagebrush-obligate migratory birds, their insect prey, and plant flowering; b) examples of behavioral plasticity ‘softening’ distributional constraints, illustrating one form of adaptation; and c) context-dependent trends and distributional constraints in a broadly distributed species. In the latter case, research on American pikas across 18 years of contemporary data and historical records from 1898-1956 suggest that pace of local extinctions and rate of upslope retraction have been markedly more rapid in the last decade than during the 20th century, and that dynamics governing the extinction process differed greatly between the two periods. This may mean that understanding even recent dynamics of species losses may not always help us predict the patterns of future loss. Given the prevalence and importance of clinal variability and ecotypic variation, phenotypic and behavioral plasticity, and variation in climatic conditions, greatest progress in understanding phenomena such as distributional determinants, the local-extinction process, and factors acting as drivers of density and population dynamics will occur with coordinated, landscape-scale research and monitoring.

Downscaling Climate Change Models to Local Site Conditions: Effects of Sea-Level Rise and Extreme Events on Coastal Habitats and Their Wildlife(01:05:09)

Presented by Dr. John Y. Takekawa, Research Wildlife Biologist, USGS Western Ecological Research Center. January 16, 2013.

Coastal land managers are faced with many challenges and uncertainties in planning adaptive strategies for conserving coastal habitats at the land-sea interface under future climate change scenarios. As transitional ecotones between the marine and terrestrial environment, intertidal to shallow sub tidal habitats along the Pacific coast are particularly sensitive to change. Projected climate change effects on coastal environments include sea-level rise, increased storm magnitude and frequency, salt water intrusion, accelerated erosion, shifting mud flat profiles, and increased water temperature and acidity. The subtidal and intertidal zones of shallow bays, mud flats, and salt marshes are a linked continuum, and thus, understanding the complex relationships between them is critical to project the effect of climate change stressors. This project takes a detailed bottom-up approach to assess vulnerability of Pacific coast habitats and their dependent wildlife at selected sites along a latitudinal gradient. It examines the potential climate change effects on transitional coastal habitats with high-quality local habitat data, downscaled climate models, and projected storm effects, and links habitat responses to wildlife using vulnerability assessments.

Ms. Zavaleta will discuss several themes that provide conceptual guidance and food for thought as resource managers tackle the questions of whether and how to change their approaches to stewardship in the face of climate change.

Sky Island Alliance is currently conducting a project to inventory, assess, and restore spring ecosystems in the Sky Island region. It is known that springs in arid regions occupy a small fraction of the landscape and yet support disproportionately high levels of productivity, endemism, and biodiversity. The need for inventory, assessment, and restoration of springs was raised at two regional climate change adaptation workshops convened and organized by Sky Island Alliance in collaboration with a variety of partners including federal and state land and wildlife management agencies. Managers with extensive on-the-ground knowledge identified the following strategies to reduce the vulnerability of springs to climate change: inventorying spring locations, conditions and characteristics, species presence and management status; coordinating data sharing across jurisdictions to understand springs in a regional context; prioritizing springs for restoration and protective management; and coordinating management across jurisdictions to implement protection and restoration of spring ecosystems. Project outcomes include new critical baseline data on springs, a regional database accessible to cooperating agencies that will house spring assessment information, identification of protection and restoration needs at springs, the restoration of 9 priority springs, and the assessment of restoration efficacy.

Climate change, and its potential impact on species distributions, has moved to the forefront of concerns among wildlife managers. Current speculation in Virginia centers on how species will respond to changing climate in the coming century. We used dynamically downscaled climate models to generate change scenarios in the mid and late 21st century. We used that information, along with available species occurrence information, to build predictive spatial models for a select group of species. Our results suggested that the impact of climate change will vary across the landscape. The resulting species distribution models provide information for wildlife managers on how climate changes may result in shifting distributions in Virginia. We also provide some basic suggestions to managers in using the information produced and in incorporating climate change into their decision making.

The National Wildlife Federation's 2016 report, "Natural Defenses in Action: Harnessing Nature to Protect our Communities" highlights the important role that natural and nature-based approaches can play in reducing the mounting risks to our communities from weather and climate-related natural hazards. The report highlights how properly managed ecosystems and well-designed policies can help reduce disaster risk in ways that are good for both people and nature." Natural Defenses in Action: Harnessing Nature to Protect our Communities" profiles a dozen case studies that highlight best-in-class examples of how natural defenses are being put to use to avoid or reduce risks from flooding, coastal storms, erosion, and wildfire. It illustrates that harnessing nature to protect people and property is not just a good idea—it is already being done across the country!

Increasing focus on assessment of vulnerability to climate change has highlighted the need for tools that integrate a vast scientific literature into accessible approaches. NatureServe Climate Change Vulnerability Index is a popular tool that allows fairly quick screening of plant and animal species for vulnerability to climate change. The Index allows input on exposure to changing climates, sensitivity to climate change, and documented or modeled responses to climate change. Assessment output allows comparison among species vulnerability and rapid identification of causal factors. During the webinar, we will describe when to use the Index, show how it works, and review results of completed assessments. To learn more, visit http://www.natureserve.org/prodServices/climatechange/ccvi.jsp.

Climate change poses many challenges to the conservation of fish, wildlife and their habitats. As temperatures warm and precipitation patterns change, species and ecosystems will need to either adapt in place, move across the landscape to track optimal conditions, or face an increased risk of going locally or even globally extinct. While there is a growing acknowledgement of the threat of climate change to fish and wildlife conservation, managers continue to struggle with how to translate the science on climate change into site- and target-specific strategies for action. The uncertainties and complexities involved in predicting future conditions can often be paralyzing to those trying to make decisions about fish and wildlife conservation. I will discuss these challenges, and present an iterative framework for adaptation planning and action that helps users overcome the paralysis of uncertainty and start addressing the question of what we should be doing differently to manage and conserve wildlife as climate changes. The framework draws on approaches to making decisions under uncertainty, such as scenario-based planning and adaptive management. I will present several pilot applications of the framework to address fish and wildlife conservation issues in western U.S.

Prediction Maps from Climate Envelope Models(01:01:22)

Safeguarding Wildlife from Climate Change Webinar Series. Presented by James I. Watling, Research Professor, University of Florida, Ft Lauderdale Research and Education Center. February 15, 2012.

Climate change is among the most pressing conservation challenges of the twenty-first century because it has the potential to reconfigure the spatial distribution of species and their habitats. Development of predictive models of biological responses to climate change is key to responding to climate change impacts and developing fish and wildlife adaptation strategies. To meet the need for robust models of species response to climate change, our team is producing predictive models (climate envelope models) for 26 federally listed threatened and endangered species occurring in peninsular Florida. In addition to development of individual species models, we also are developing a flexible protocol for climate envelope modeling that is applicable to other species and geographic locations, and using a variety of media to place this information in the hands of natural resource managers. In this webinar, we will introduce participants to some of the decision support tools we are developing, present preliminary insights from species models, and outline a quantitative and spatially-explicit approach to describing uncertainty in climate envelope models.

Prioritizing Tidal Marsh Conservation and Restoration Efforts Given High Uncertainty due to Failure Environmental Change(01:06:42)

The large uncertainty surrounding the effects of sea-level rise and climate change on tidal marsh habitats and the species that depend on them exacerbates the difficulty in planning effective conservation and restoration efforts. To help conservation practitioners address these effects, we modeled the distribution and abundance of tidal marsh bird species in the San Francisco Estuary every twenty years between 2010 and 2110 in relation to projected changes in sea-level rise, salinity, and sediment availability. These distributions were projected for four future scenarios with assumptions of low or high suspended sediment concentrations and low or high rates of sea-level rise (0.52 m or 1.65 m/100 yr) to assess the sensitivity of models to uncertainty in future conditions. We used the projections of bird populations to develop spatially-based priorities for conservation and restoration using Zonation conservation planning software. We tested whether the ranking of the top 25% of proposed restoration projects changed based on which future scenario we used in the Landscape prioritization. We used the for future scenarios, one scenario only including current conditions and one scenario with all future scenarios included to rank the potential restoration projects. We found that ranking restoration projects based on current conditions consistently resulted in fewer tidal marsh birds protected under all scenarios. Ranking the restoration sites based on only one of the four available future scenarios showed variable performance. Ranking restoration projects using the “all scenarios” prioritization consistently performed as well as or better than rankings using individual scenarios. Our results demonstrate the value of using models of different scenarios when uncertainty in future conditions is high to ensure that climate change adaptation plans are robust to the uncertainty in future conditions.

Release of the New Climate-Smart Conservation Guide(01:16:16)

Safeguarding Wildlife from CC Webinar Series. Presented by Dr. Bruce A. Stein, Director, Climate Change Adaptation, National Wildlife Federation along with a panel of representatives from federal agencies involved in the guide’s development.

The next few webinars in this series will be focused on the soon-to-be released guide Climate-Smart Conservation: Putting Adaptation Principles into Practice. This first webinar will cover Part I of the guide (Getting Started), which explores the basic concepts behind climate-smart conservation and provides an overview of the climate-smart conservation cycle, the adaptation planning framework around which much of the guide is structured. Following this overview, there will be a panel discussion among representatives of key federal agencies involved in the guide’s development. Panelists will discuss opportunities for applying the principles of climate-smart conservation to their agencies work.

This webinar will focus on a newly released guide to vulnerability assessment --Scanning the Conservation Horizon--designed to assist fish and wildlife and other natural resource managers as they work to prepare for and cope with the impacts of climate change. The guide provides an overall framework for how vulnerability assessment supports climate change adaptation planning efforts, covers how assessments can be designed to meet specific user needs, and offers case studies on existing assessments of species and habitats. The guide also represents a broad interagency collaboration coordinated by National Wildlife Federation, it benefited from support and involvement from US Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, US Geological Survey, US Forest Service, NOAA, and Department of Defense. Additional case studies supplementing those in the guide will also be discussed.

Species Translocations: Questions & Considerations in a Changing Climate(01:36:21)

Translocations of plant and animal species have occurred for many purposes, with varying costs and mixed outcomes. Some species that are highly vulnerable to climate change may not be able to withstand climate-related and other alterations in their historic ranges, or make range shifts fast enough to match the velocity of climate change. This webinar will explore questions and considerations about the use of translocations as a climate adaptation tool, with a focus on "managed relocation" of species outside their historic range in response to climate change considerations.

State Wildlife Action Plans and Climate Change: Working Together to Prevent Wildlife from Becoming Endangered(01:28:17)

This webinar presents a case study of on-the-ground climate-smart conservation, including challenges, methods, actions and lessons learned. Recent advances in climate-smart conservation were applied to several restoration projects in the Great Lakes as part of the Great Lakes Funding Initiative (GLRI), and are broadly applicable across the country. Examples of on-the-ground climate-smart projects are useful learning opportunities for further advancement of the rapidly evolving science of climate-smart conservation.

The National Climate Assessment: Actionable Science for Natural System(01:14:56)

The third National Climate Assessment (NCA) report, released May 6, 2014, is the most comprehensive look at climate change impacts in the United States to date. Based on years of work by hundreds of diverse experts, the NCA (http://nca2014.globalchange.gov/) confirms that climate change is affecting us – and the natural resources we rely on – right now. Join authors of NCA chapters on Ecosystems, Forests, and Adaptation together with representatives from the U.S. Global Change Research Program and the NCA Indicator System to discuss key findings and implications for managers.

The National Climate Assessment Report: A briefing on the Public Review Draft with a focus on Ecosystems and Biodiversity(01:19:32)

This webinar will provide participants with an overview of 1,100+ page National Climate Assessment report that was posted for 90-day public review on January 14, 2013. The scenarios used for the assessment and the approach for assessing impacts on U.S. sectors and regions will be presented, as well as the mechanism for providing comments. The second part of the webinar will be devoted to a presentation of the key findings of a report by 60 co-authors that was written to underpin the Ecosystems, Biodiversity and Ecosystems Services chapter of the National Climate Assessment.

New forest inventories show that the nation's forests absorb nearly half of our greenhouse gas pollutants if left undisturbed. Forests are a critical part of the global atmospheric carbon cycle that contribute to climate stabilization by absorbing (sequestering) and storing vast amounts of carbon dioxide in trees (live and dead), soils and understory foliage. As a forest ages, it continues to accumulate and store carbon, functioning as a net carbon “sink” for centuries. The implications for natural resource managers will be discussed.

Use of Natural and Nature-Based Features to Enhance the Resilience of Coastal Systems(00:52:38)

Safeguarding Wildlife from CC Webinar Series - Presented by Todd Bridges and Paul Wagner, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. November 13, 2013.

Hurricane Sandy impacted the Atlantic coastline of the United States in October 2012. In response to the storm and its aftermath, Congress directed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to conduct a comprehensive study of the consequences of Hurricane Sandy. The purpose of the North Atlantic Coast Comprehensive Study (Study) is to develop a strategy to reduce risk and increase the resiliency of the coastal system affected by Hurricane Sandy. Additional information can be found on the Study website at:http://www.nad.usace.army.mil/Missions/CivilWorks/HurricaneSandyCoastalRecovery/NorthAtlanticComprehensiveStudy.aspx
The Study includes an effort focused on developing approaches for identifying and evaluating opportunities to use natural and nature-based features (NNBF) to support coastal resilience and risk reduction in the context of planning, construction, and operations and maintenance activities. NNBF include beach-dune complexes, barrier islands, wetlands, tidal flats and many other features that can provide both engineering and environmental functions in the context of coastal storms and resilience. The efforts underway include developing a framework to support the evaluation and implementation of NNBF to achieve coastal risk reduction and resilience, in addition to tools and methods for applying the framework. The webinar will provide an overview of the framework, its technical components, and future plans regarding the effort.

Using Science-Management Partnerships to Adapt to Climate Change: National Forests and National Parks in Washington (00:52:47)

Presented by Dr. David L. Peterson, Research Biologist, USFS Pacific Northwest Research Station, Affiliate Professor at the University of Washington. September 26, 2012.

The U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service are working together to prepare for the effects of climate change across 3 million hectares in Washington State. This collaborative approach consists of (1) climate change education for all agency employees, (2) assessment of vulnerability of natural resources to climate change, and (3) development of adaptation strategies and tactics to reduce adverse effects of climate change. Direct engagement between research scientists and resource managers through workshops and ongoing dialogue has been the key to this grass-roots process. Adaptation focuses on the Olympic Peninsula (one national forest + one national park) and the North Cascade Range (two national forests + two national parks), directly connecting vulnerability assessments with adaptation options for vegetation, wildlife, fisheries, and hydrology/roads/access. Including regional stakeholders in the science-management partnership has provided for a broad perspective on natural resource issues, as well as support for development and implementation of adaptation in planning and on-the-ground activities. This general approach can be emulated by other agencies that want to begin the process of adapting to climate change across large landscapes.

With a grant from the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Manonment Center for Conservation Sciences, we identified the relative vulnerability of twenty habitat types identified in the Massachusetts State Wildlife Action Plan using an Expert Panel approach. We identify the Species in Greatest Conservation Need linked to these habitats which are most likely to be affected by climate change conditions. We provide confidence values for the relative vulnerability rankings and identify the various factors which make them vulnerable under climate change conditions for each habitat type. Results from this assessment are being used to inform wildlife habitat management and acquisition implementation processes.

Vulnerability Assessments

This presentation sets the stage for the USFS/NWF webinar series on climate change vulnerability assessment and adaptation planning for resource managers that is set to begin in January. Calling on almost a decade of national and international experience with climate change, Jennie will use real-world examples to illustrate how traditional approaches to conservation and management may be vulnerable to climate change as well as a variety of approaches to vulnerability assessment and adaptation. These include top-down and bottom-up approaches, and efforts geared towards adapting projects, processes, and programs to climate change.

With a grant from the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Manonment Center for Conservation Sciences, we identified the relative vulnerability of twenty habitat types identified in the Massachusetts State Wildlife Action Plan using an Expert Panel approach. We identify the Species in Greatest Conservation Need linked to these habitats which are most likely to be affected by climate change conditions. We provide confidence values for the relative vulnerability rankings and identify the various factors which make them vulnerable under climate change conditions for each habitat type. Results from this assessment are being used to inform wildlife habitat management and acquisition implementation processes.

Vulnerability assessment is a tool for understanding how different species and habitats are likely to respond to changes in climate, and provides essential information for developing climate change adaptation strategies. This presentation will explore the conceptual basis for assessing vulnerability--including its subcomponents of sensitivity and exposure--and will review several of the assessment approaches that currently are in use or under development.

During this webinar we will explore the approaches most commonly implemented to model the large-scale response of amphibians and reptiles to climate change. We will discuss what conclusions can be drawn from vulnerability assessments, and what kinds of data are necessary to execute an assessment. Examples of a vulnerability assessment being conducted in the southeastern US will be used to demonstrate model outputs and applications.

This webinar will focus on a newly released guide to vulnerability assessment --Scanning the Conservation Horizon--designed to assist fish and wildlife and other natural resource managers as they work to prepare for and cope with the impacts of climate change. The guide provides an overall framework for how vulnerability assessment supports climate change adaptation planning efforts, covers how assessments can be designed to meet specific user needs, and offers case studies on existing assessments of species and habitats. The guide also represents a broad interagency collaboration coordinated by National Wildlife Federation, it benefited from support and involvement from US Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, US Geological Survey, US Forest Service, NOAA, and Department of Defense. Additional case studies supplementing those in the guide will also be discussed.

With a grant from the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Manonment Center for Conservation Sciences, we identified the relative vulnerability of twenty habitat types identified in the Massachusetts State Wildlife Action Plan using an Expert Panel approach. We identify the Species in Greatest Conservation Need linked to these habitats which are most likely to be affected by climate change conditions. We provide confidence values for the relative vulnerability rankings and identify the various factors which make them vulnerable under climate change conditions for each habitat type. Results from this assessment are being used to inform wildlife habitat management and acquisition implementation processes.